Smartphone owners just can’t stop using their phones, even when they are answering nature’s call, according to survey that tracked cellphone usage in the bathroom.
Men and women were about equal in their bathroom usage of smartphones, with 74 percent of males and 76 percent of women acknowledging they use their phones there.
However, men appear to be more attached to their mobile devices, with 30 percent saying they never go to the bathroom without their phone, compared to 20 percent for women. A small number of men (20 percent) and women (13 percent) even admitted to conducting work calls from the stalls.
Reading texts (67 percent) and answering calls (63 percent) are the most common smartphone tasks performed in the bathroom, according to the survey, although more than half of the respondents (59 percent) sent a text while on the toilet and more than a third either read e-mail (42 percent) or confessed to initiating calls (41 percent) from the bathroom.
Droid (87 percent) and BlackBerry (84 percent) owners use their phones in the bathroom more than iPhone (77 percent) users, but BlackBerry users (75 percent) are more likely to answer a call than Droid (67 percent) or iPhone (60 percent) users.
Not surprisingly, Generation Y were the kings of smartphone bathroom usage, with 91 percent admitting to the practice, followed by Generation X (87 percent), baby boomers (65 percent) and those born before 1946 (47 percent).
Although not as popular as talking and texting, apps are being used from the bathroom, too. Gen Y (59 percent) topped that category, trailed by Gen X (43 percent), boomers (22 percent) and those born before 1946 (8 percent).
The survey also predicted that buying from the bathroom is poised for growth, with 16 percent of Gen Y smartphone users professing to have made a purchase from the boathroom, 10 percent of Gen Xers, 6 percent of boomers and 2 percent of those born before 1946.
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